Welcome to LALos Angeles is a city carved out of the desert – a conjured image of paradise. These are the stories of people who learn what lies beyond the dream – yacht parties with theremin makers that end on the rocks, low-budget filmmaking that blurs the line between truth and fiction, movie stars and Hollywood hopefuls whose stories seem too crazy to be true. Welcome to Los Angeles.

Lost NotesThe greatest music stories never told. Explore the amazing stories of how 60s rock hit “Louie, Louie” triggered an FBI investigation, the outlaw Brooklyn radio station WBAD that tracked the rise of 90s hip hop, and the man who went from Folsom Prison inmate to Johnny Cash’s bandmate.

To the PointA weekly reality-check on the issues Americans care about most. Host Warren Olney draws on his decades of experience to explore the people and issues shaping – and disrupting - our world. How did everything change so fast? Where are we headed? The conversations are informal, edgy and always informative. If Warren's asking, you want to know the answer.

Obama Heads to Mexico

In Mexico City today, Presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto want to talk about trade and a booming economy, but the murderous drug wars are still raging. Will the public conversation be different from what happens behind closed doors?

FROM THIS EPISODE

In Mexico City today, Presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto want to talk about trade and a booming economy, but the murderous drug wars are still raging. Will the public conversation be different from what happens behind closed doors? Also, North Korea sentences an American to fifteen years hard labor, and an airplane that runs on solar power.

North Korea has sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor. Should the US allow Kenneth Bae to languish in prison or send an envoy to negotiate his release? Patrick Cronin is senior analyst with the Center for a New American Security.

Mexico's new President wants to shift attention away from severed heads, mass graves and bodies hanging from bridges to a growing economy. So does President Obama on today's visit to the "Aztec Tiger," which is booming enough to attract foreign investors after years of paralysis. But the drug wars are not over. Four thousand people have died since Enrique Peña Nieto took office, and now vigilantes are taking the law into their own hands. Will stepped-up US enforcement aid still be welcome? Will security be the elephant in the room?

On the last leg of an around-the-world journey in a hot air balloon, Bertrand Piccard almost ran out of propane on the desert of Egypt. He had barely enough to finish his trip in Switzerland. So he decided to circumnavigate the Earth with no fuel at all. A plane called Solar Impulse is ready for its most ambitious flight yet, across the country, powered by photovoltaic cells. Ucilia Wang, who covers clean tech for Forbes, GigaOm and Renewable Energy World, says the plane sits in a hangar at Moffett Field, south of San Francisco near San Jose.